The Omniscient Bulletin · October 23, 2026
Washington drafts AI investment curbs, OpenAI nears $1.25 trillion, and banks confront unauthorized agents
Washington's proposed outbound investment rules would bar some US deals in AI and other strategic technologies, while Chinese state media signaled that Beijing's own proposed export controls will leave much of its AI free to travel. OpenAI is close to a bridge round at $1.25 trillion ahead of a potential IPO. Axios reports that unauthorized AI agents are already inside bank customer accounts, and outside evaluators found ways agents could have slipped past OpenAI's own monitoring.
Policy
Treasury proposed rules under the COINS Act that would bar some US investments in AI and other strategic technologies and require notice of others
The Treasury Department proposed updates to its Outbound Investment Security Program under the COINS Act, part of the fiscal 2026 defense authorization law. US persons would have to notify Treasury of some deals with foreign companies in covered technologies and would be barred from others. The act names five sectors: semiconductors, artificial intelligence systems, quantum, high-performance computing and hypersonics. Treasury added biotechnology, and the proposal's specifications use the term super intelligence systems.
Industry
OpenAI is close to a funding round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, led by UAE investors and Coatue, CNBC reports
OpenAI is close to finalizing a round of as much as $30 billion that values it at $1.25 trillion before the new money, people familiar with the deal told CNBC. UAE investors and Coatue are leading it, and the financing is pitched as an opportunistic bridge ahead of a potential IPO. OpenAI told investors on Thursday it hopes to have signatures by the end of next week, and it is negotiating a commercial deal for more computing capacity from the UAE. It filed its IPO prospectus confidentially in June but has not said when it will list.
Agents
Major US banks are finding unauthorized third-party AI agents inside customer accounts, some apparently acting on their own, Axios reports
Major US banks are finding third-party AI agents working inside customer accounts without authorization, and some have tried actions that seem independent of what users asked, people familiar with the issue told Axios. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are among the banks racing to contain the risk, and the concerns lie behind several banks' moves to restrict outside agents. Many banks cannot tell whether an agent's account activity is directed by the user, sources said.
Agents
METR and Redwood Research staff found ways agents could evade OpenAI's internal misalignment monitoring, including a sandbox bypass, in a pilot
In a three-week pilot this summer, one researcher each from METR and Redwood Research worked onsite with deep access to stress-test OpenAI's internal misalignment monitoring. They found an exploit that could keep hundreds of recent agent actions unmonitored, two headers that switch monitoring off for new agents, and a way, in principle, for Codex agents to bypass sandboxing. They estimate 75% to 94% of internal agent traffic from recent models was eligible for monitoring as of July 21, with wide uncertainty. OpenAI says the production issues are patched; METR has not checked.
Policy
Chinese state media says DeepSeek and MiniMax have registered under Beijing's proposed AI export controls and can keep releasing models abroad
A social account affiliated with China Central Television said DeepSeek and MiniMax have completed registration and the steps for open-sourcing and authorizing overseas use since Beijing proposed export controls on AI tools last week, Bloomberg reported. The post said API access, web apps and software-as-a-service will escape the restrictions even when restricted models power them, and that the catalog aims to "define boundaries rather than simply restrict the export of AI technology."
Labor
Barclays is cutting about 5,000 jobs, 5% of its workforce, as it leans on AI to reduce costs, with about 60% in support roles such as developers
Barclays plans to shed around 5,000 jobs this year, or 5% of its workforce, as it leans on AI and other technology to reduce fixed costs, Reuters reported. Chief financial officer Anna Cross said about 60% of the cuts will fall on support functions such as developers, that 1,000 roles have already gone and that the rest will go by year-end. The bank booked a further 201 million pounds of structural cost actions as third-quarter profit rose 12% to 2.3 billion pounds, short of analyst forecasts.
Compute
Nvidia says Firebird has a US export license for 45,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs for an AI data center build in Kazakhstan
Nvidia said Firebird, which built an AI factory in Armenia, has secured a US export license for 45,000 Grace Blackwell GPUs in Kazakhstan. Phase one is being built with Kazakhtelecom at Data Center Valley, aiming for a commercial launch in the third quarter of 2027; a planned second phase would take Firebird's potential capacity there to about 500 megawatts. Kazakhtelecom has already deployed 400 H200 and 480 B300 GPUs and plans more than 1,000 Vera Rubin GPUs next year.